She moves her spear swiftly and skilfully, easily parrying my
by drawing an arc with her spear. While unexpectedly lifting her face, she rotates around her own body’s axis. It’s a motion looking like a large flower has bloomed in the sky. She’s using my rotational force for herself, and while gracefully turning my slash aside, she uses the momentum to brandish the witch spear with the accelerated speed and power. Its skull blade approaches my face in no time.
“――What amazing agility.”
While praising her nimbleness, I evade the blade by bending my head backwards. For an instant I consider a counterattack after dodging, but the skull blade transforms. Tooth-shaped triangle blades extend in all directions from the spearhead.
That’s nothing I can avoid with a head slip――
“――Ugh, that huuuurt!”
My face has been gouged out by the tooth-shaped triangle blades. s.h.i.+t, that friggin’ hurts, but it’s nothing fatal.
While sensing how large quant.i.ties of blood spray out of my injured face, I continue rotating sideways, delivering a counterattack with a mid-tiered turning kick against her chest.
“――Auu.”
Kisara blocks Arzen’s Boot with the middle part of her spear, and falls back. The witch spear has absorbed the impact by bending a bit. The skull blade has reverted to its previous sword-like state. In short, that skull spearhead doesn’t just extend, eh?
“…That was a mighty kick… But, thanks for the fles.h.!.+” Even while acting as though both her arms are numb, Kisara squeals in joy as she looks at my flesh that’s clinging to the skull spearhead.
Her delighted voice permeates into the wound on my face. But, I won’t give in. I adopt a stance of holding Baldok above my head while s.h.i.+fting the hand holding Baldok upwards. Then I jump down towards Kisara, using a mana hand, swooping down on her. I grasp Baldok’s metallic handle with my left hand, s.h.i.+fting to a two-handed hold.
Then I move Baldok by pulling the left hand towards myself while thrusting out the right as if punching. I make Baldok rotate with the power of my arms. The Magic Dragon Gem plainly heads for Kisara without any mana charged into it
She dodges the gem by quickly pulling her body back. Her discernment to evade and not block with her spear is something I’d expected from her. However, I’ll be troubled if she looks down on the Wind Spear Style.
While rotating Baldok vertically as if crossing my arms, I use the inertia of my fall to my advantage, and unleash a lower chop with my left foot.
Kisara responds to the low kick by bringing down her helmet. Her eyes, as they peek at me through the helmet, are stabbing.
I can tell that she’s read the trajectory of my kick. She dodges it by twisting her body. However, it’s been well within my expectations that she’d evade anyway. Or in other words, the first chopping kick was a fake.
I secure myself a foothold with , and lunge the backside of the rotating Baldok at Kisara’s head.
Kisara somehow manages to s.h.i.+ft her posture to standing sideways while making her magic garment s.h.i.+ne, avoiding the backside of the red ax blade.
But, my attack hasn’t ended yet. While continuing to rotate Baldok, the b.u.t.t end of Baldok chases after Kisara. Kisara rotates her body in the opposite direction while trying to evade Baldok’s b.u.t.t end attack, but she isn’t in time against the three-chain combo.
The Magic Dragon Gem sinks into her shoulder.
“Ah――”
The magic garment disappears from the impact on her shoulder. Kisara vomits blood with her stance having completely fallen apart. Her body whirls sideways towards the ground while scattering blood as she’s being blown away. A part of her white, silky hair becomes blood-soaked, and the black string that tied her hair together at the side comes undone.
Going by the fact that the gem reached her body through the nun garb, I got some solid feedback from that attack. My Master’s own Wind Spear Style’s 『Hazy Tear – Revised』, an improved version of 『One Feather Tear』, got the job done.
It looks like Kisara is going to fall into the river. But, she doesn’t. She stops her fall at a place where it’s unclear whether the soles of her st.u.r.dy combat boots actually touch the river’s surface, but she still creates ripples on the water.
She spits blood into the river, smoothly picks up the black string, and exhales a magic breath after wiping the blood off her lips with a hand.
“…Thou hast glared, desert crow. Hyureya,” she declares some ancient words with her magic voice once more.
Is it a skill or a spell?
At the same time, she nimbly ties her blood-stained hair together with the string, obviously familiar with doing this.
“――Hyureya――desert crow.”
Immediately after her supernatural voice stops, mana explosively surges out of her. While causing the river water to shoot up in a fountain, Kisara charges upwards, closing the distance between us with tremendous speed.
The gleam dwelling in her blue eyes leaves blue neon trails in the air. As soon as she enters my range, I stab at her with a of Baldok.
But, she’s vanished…no…a crow!?
Before I know it, I feel an impact on my chest. Hal’Konk warps. While being blown away, I position a behind me to kill the impact.
Milliseconds later, the skull blade approaches me once more. As I don’t have any time to evade, my right arm gets cut. I leak a grunt from the violent pain, faltering.
At that point, the small filament blades that have deployed in a fan shape from the hole in the witch spear lunge at me. I won’t be able to dodge these.
Ouuuch!
A part of my right arm has been torn off. However, the other spiraling blades are blocked by Hal’Konk.
“――That protective clothing is tough!” Kisara screams out, obviously flabbergasted by my recovery rate and the blades being blocked.
But then she changes the angle of her spear, and thrusts out its tip at me.
Without waiting, I rotate on my toes, dodging the barrage of thrusts which allow me to confirm Kisara’s high level of martial arts while counter attacking with Baldok.
She evades the red ax blade coming at her from the right side, and kicks from the left in response, but while dodging that, I swing the Magic Dragon Gem at her. Yet, that one also fails to hit Kisara as she rotates out of the way.
At that moment, I feint with my eyes. Falling for it, Kisara’s reaction time slows down for an instant which I use to unleash a barrage of light stabs with varying Magic Combat Style distributions.
Forced into defense, Kisara parries with her spear. Thus I add a to mess with the barrage’s timing.
“――A dark crow!?” She promptly bends back even while obviously surprised.
The grazes her chin, and flicks off her helmet. However, Kisara’s heel kick approaches me from below.
While evading it by s.h.i.+fting half my body to the side, I switch to close combat, releasing an elbow strike against Kisara’s torso with my right arm immediately after she’s launched her kick.
This blow gets blocked by her spear filaments, but I don’t mind, and continue by pus.h.i.+ng out my left shoulder while twisting around my waist as I hold Baldok behind me, making me look like a scarecrow. It’s the spear k.u.mite’s Left Back Offensive.
“Gueeh――” Kisara groans after receiving the blow alongside a dull thud.
As I pursue her in a forward-bent posture, Kisara positions herself sideways, so I thrust Baldok at her, trying to wallop her.
However, the filaments block the red ax blade by spreading out as a curtain. The magic fibers coiled around the ax blade keep burning down. Hence I forcibly push Baldok onward, imagining how it’s going to rip apart that curtain alongside all the magic fibers.
Baldok’s ax blade invades Kisara’s neck through the shoulder.
“Kyaa――”
It looks like I’ve cut through her artery as her blood gushes out profusely. Moreover, a part of her nun garb burns away after the cross design lights up, exposing her shoulder and collar.
I get showered by her blood.
At that moment, the necklace hanging from her neck lights up. A bright, warm flash robs me of my sight.
“Light G.o.d Lulodis-sama――” Kisara speaks the G.o.d’s name while retreating.
Regaining my sight after the light vanished, I plant my feet down on a in the air. I turn around while making Baldok rotate, as if searching for Kisara.
She’s evacuated to my right side. Her wounds are healing…
“The necklace, huh?”
“…Indeed. The power of Lulodis-sama that has been sealed in Nepure Highcient…” She calmly explains.
After sadly watching how the necklace crumbles apart after having spent all its power, she rotates around, lovingly manipulating the filaments coming out of the witch spear.
Her current defense measures also include those multi-colored magic fibers, eh? The earlier crow also came from those filaments. The magic fibers look just like various-colored hair growing out of the hole on the witch spear…
It appears they can instantly create something like a crow illusion.
“…Blood like Lulodis-sama whom Mephalla-sama adores to the point of jealousy――” Kisara mutters such witchy words as she a.n.a.lyzes me.
She scoops up the blood sticking to her spear’s tip…and paints her own cheek with it.
“Aahhnn―― this is what I’m talking about! I feel it! This smell reminiscent of Tree King Kyulha is irresistible…” Kisara writhes, her body trembling and her big b.o.o.bs swaying, with an ecstatic expression.
I can feel the light of religious fanaticism similar to that of Catiza exuding from her stare. One of her shoulders is still hanging down. I reckon the necklace’s power was an emergency measure. At least it looks like the wound from my previous shoulder blow hasn’t healed yet.
Kisara has apparently devoured Schmihazar’s power, but I guess the regenerative power of an undead wasn’t included. She’s the speed-specialized type who has weak defense and recovery skills… A human opponent with traits resembling the demonic Togma.
No, she’s no ordinary human, but a witch. It’s not my right to talk about others, but there’s really all kinds of different opponents around…
As I’m indulging in such impressions, Rollodeen’s voice reaches my ears as she toys around with the darkness whale.
Now then, time to get pumped up here――
I stare at Kisara with feelings full of respect. And then, after placing a hand on my chest for a 『Ra Kelarda』, I rework my Magic Combat Style.
“Here I come――”
I don’t only possess and Magic Combat Style. If she fights with speed, I can answer in kind. I focus my Magic Combat Style into the muscles of my trunk while calling upon my trump card in my mind.
Running through the air by using several instances of , I shorten the distance to Kisara.
“Look! I’m confident in my speed!” Kisara’s words. .h.i.t my ears.
Without minding that, I pretend to stab at her normally, just to suddenly do a forward somersault while brandis.h.i.+ng Baldok vertically. It’s a
blended into a feint.
But, Kisara immediately reacts. She inclines her spear, letting the ax blade slide along the blade while killing the impact. Right afterwards, she makes the filaments expand again, wrapping up the ax blade with fibers.
My
has been completely blocked. It’s a technique she’s seen once, but…for her to completely shut it out to such an extent…
Kisara recoils from the blow while still entranced, but her spear techniques are still going as strong as before. Or rather than weakening, it looks to me like she’s growing during this battle.
Suddenly the filaments engulfing the ax blade transform, unleas.h.i.+ng an attack. Although it’s a counter, I’ve already become familiar with her attack pattern!
Switching to defense, I dodge one, then two, and then many of the small blades as if dancing. Just when I’ve evaded all blades, I swing Baldok from diagonally below while rotating.
Staying true to her confidence in her own speed, she avoids the sweep by jumping above me. Looking down at me, she smiles, and falls down with a terrifying speed, clearly aiming for the moment of me having swung Baldok.
Moreover, she comes at me with a stomping attack that exhibits the soles of her thick boots she’s pressing together.
I lift up Baldok, and summon Ganghis into my left hand, blocking her flying kick attack. For sure I haven’t expected her to force me to use that hidden card as a defense measure.
“――Wow! You’re amazing after all! G.o.dlike! You’ll be able to fend off that sorcerer! For you to block my that’s been loaded with the power of Damo’Anun’s magic symbol upon seeing it for the first time――” She unleashes a chain of stomps as she keeps blathering and cheerfully laughing like a SM queen.
Her kicks I can feel through my arms are unimaginably heavy. Moreover, her two, thick-soled combat boots are d.a.m.n heavy and fast as they repeatedly a.s.sault me. Although she originally shouldn’t weigh so much…
I don’t even have time to release my . I retreat while being showered by a barrage of stomps, gradually getting closer to the river as I’m being pushed by her kicks and pulled by gravity. At this rate, I’m going to take an involuntary bath.
No, don’t fret, me! Recall the previous battle against Iglued!
Remembering the angry shout of my Master, I close my eyes and regain my composure. I’ve definitely learned how to walk across water. I can also rely on the water G.o.ddess.
While continuing to stay on defense, I wait for her to get impatient with her fearsome barrage of kicks.
“――Eh? Just now I felt like I’ve seen some kind of illusion?” Kisara mumbles. “But, this chain attack must be tough on you, right?”
She says worriedly to me who keeps enduring her barrage. However, she’s talking somewhat quickly. She might be saying such things exactly because she’s becoming fl.u.s.tered over me devoting myself to defense.
The instant I suspect so, Kisara creates a break of several milliseconds, cheerfully declaring, “As a matter of fact, there’s still a lot more to come! ――”
She stabs at me with the witch spear, now engulfed in filaments.
――This is my chance!
Widening my eyes, I invoke . With my speed doubled, I abruptly focus on my upper arm, making the speckled loop automatically deploy all the way down to my wrist. And then I “deliberately” block her spear attack, which seems to me to be her finisher technique, with the loop’s light ring defense as it rises from my left arm, and ward it off by rotating on my toes, combined with my blood, mana, and water.
At the same time, I erase Baldok while slipping into her bosom back-first.
During that time, I hear something like a scream from the witch spear for some reason. But, without caring about that, I thrust one hand through the river’s surface, propping up my body. I charge mana into Arzen’s boots, delivering an upper foot chop while making sure to stretch spine and legs.
The vertical kick lands on Kisara’s trunk. The witch spear had its mana reduced by half as if running out of steam. Accordingly, I can hear a heavy thump from Kisara’s belly.
Kisara is being pushed up into the sky, her body having folded at her stomach. Following up on the kick, I jump upwards by pus.h.i.+ng myself with my left hand, and unleash a spear technique – a spear move with a motion of sliding across the water as if tracing the moon’s reflection on the river’s surface.
Piiing ※ acquired.
Ganghis pierces through Kisara’s bent torso. She loses all the mana in her body, unable to even scream.
Kisara, who’s lifelessly dangling from Ganghis, is further being penetrated by Ganghis thanks to her own body weight.
“Uugh, magnificent…” Kisara croaks hoa.r.s.ely.
She lets her precious witch spear fall, apparently having lost all will to resist.
I erase Ganghis, resulting in Kisara dropping into the river, and being washed away. On the other hand, the witch spear, which has been slowly falling, extends countless skull branches downwards from its spearhead. It runs those branches into the riverbed, and despite swaying lightly, it affixes itself like a warped tree growing out of the river.
Kisara sinks into the river as she apparently doesn’t even have the strength to swim anymore. Her blood dyes the river’s surface.
At that instant, the stench of sulfur begins to flow out of the coffin that brought Schmihazar forth.
“…So the Four Heavenly Witch was defeated after all, huh…?” A voice rumbles from within the coffee.
What a shady coffin!
――I activate , and have the stakes head for the coffin, but…it’s pointless, just as I thought.
The coffin absorbs the darkness stakes delightfully.
At that moment, I can hear the whale throatily screaming, “Kisara~~~~~”, from far away. It’s not like I’m being influenced by its heartrending voice, but I ignore the coffin, and enclose Kisara with so as to stop her from being carried away by the river’s stream.
I quickly draw close to her after having enclosed her in with the trees of the evil domain, and pick her up. After pulling her soaked, seductive body close to me, I swiftly carry her over to the river’s bank.
Her body looks different from earlier when she took my barrage of kicks. It’s as light as a feather…and cute.
“…Aah…”
She seems to have woken up when I put her down on the ground. Albeit still being alive, her bleeding is terrible. At this rate, she’s probably going to die.
At this point, Moga and the others rush over to us, seemingly having grasped that the battle was nearing its end.
“Hey, we have some――”
“Yeah, wait a moment.” I prevent Moga from speaking any further by holding up a hand.
At once I cast the advanced spell 《Water Cure》, causing a transparent water sphere to appear. The sphere bursts instantly, turning into a mist of water drops, and then rains down on Kisara’s body. Her wounds heal away.
“…You’re going to save the la.s.s you just fought?” Moga asks with a serious look, despite being a penguin.
Green leaves are wrapped around his beloved sword. It appears he had to deal with some kind of monster.
“As you can see.”
While answering, I look in the direction of the huge coffin, but it’s already gone. At least it’s not at the location where it was floating moments ago. Its mana and the smell of sulfur has disappeared as well.
Moreover, the morning sun has risen. While the vicinity is being brightly illuminated by its light, I spot Higlia with her pretty, silver fur. She’s smiling all over her face.
“――Shuuya! Monsters have come out on our side as well!” Higlia rattles down full of liveliness while removing the leaves wrapped around her silver claws.
“It was terrible, but Gramps Ton helped us out! I also did my best～”
“I’m, Nemus.”
Nemus is carrying the corpses of leaf monsters on both her shoulders. And she’s furthermore holding many things similar to big horsetail shoots under her arms.
“Still, to save your enemy…”
“He must have some intention.”
There seem to be some who got injured among the other people, but they all approach.
“Look, Rollo-chan is pinning down a big whale over there!”
“Oh, you’re right! Whaaa! Amazing! How cool!” Arry points her finger after having run up to me.
Arry and Taack are holding the seed of Iglued and the Duke Ado-something whom I’ve entrapped. The one-eyed Ado-something can’t speak because his mouth is clogged up by a tree, but he seems to be doing fine, seeing how he’s trying to move his mouth to mumble something. Iglued hasn’t changed from being a seed-like stone.
At that point I look in the direction of Arry’s finger, spotting Rollodeen howling while standing atop the whale. On top of that, Taro bounces up and down on Rollo’s head, its wand lifted high up.
And then Rollo plays around by stabbing a tentacle bone sword into the whale’s b.u.t.t area.
“Arry, Taack, you shouldn’t look at that.”
“Eehh? Why?”
“Say, say, is it okay for me to play with this tree every once in a while?” Taack is about to throw Iglued’s seed.
“That’s a no. Since I’ve been entrusted with it for the time being, put it down over there.”
“Bah, always saying no to everything. How boring, you party p.o.o.per!”
“Hey! Listen to what Shuuya-sama tells you!”
“Yeah, be a good boy, or you’ll get to feel my pebble,” Gramps Ton joins in.
“Auu, uh, gotcha…”
“Alright! But, in exchange you have to teach me your , Gramps Ton!”
It seems the children respect Gramps Ton a lot. They leave Iglued’s seed and the little duke in my care.
With that out of the way, I look at Kisara. She’s confirming the situation around her after having raised her upper body. A smile is visible on her lips as she watches the children. The atmosphere around here is completely different from before.
“…It looks like you’re conscious.”
“…Yeah, no, yes, that is correct.” Kisara looks at me with upturned eyes.
Are you still going to continue the fight? The witch spear is stabbed in the ground over there. And your enslaved whale is in the state you can see over there, but…”
“Fufu, I had more than enough. Rotalz looks pathetic, but he’s tough, so he’ll live.”
“I see. Can you stand up?” I offer her a hand to show my friendliness.
“Yep, thanks for saving me――”
Kisara grabs my hand, and draws close into my embrace. Her soft b.o.o.bs! During that short time of delight, the wounds on my palm, which cups her hand, throbs. Once I look at it, I can see a straight sword cut gaping wide open. It’s opened up, or rather, is it a hole? What does that mean? Doesn’t it heal up?
“…You’re still injured?” Kisara asks worriedly after spotting the hole on my palm.
“Yeah.” When I focus on the hole while giving a half-hearted reply, a sword suddenly flies over, and completely embeds itself in my left palm in an instant.
Piiing ※ Saraten’s Secret Art ※ Permanent skill acquired
The holy sword from back when I protected Higlia, huh? It looks like it’s some kind of secret weapon.
Anyway, I can’t resist Kisara’s blood scent… Am I going to grow out vampiric fangs?
“――Aaahhh!! Why are you hugging Shuuya!? That’s not allowed!” Higlia extends her claws in anger while trying to tear Kisara off me.
“Oh my, excuse me.”
Kisara lightly wards off Higlia, and genuflects with swift moves. With her adorably looking up to me and her b.o.o.bs being squished by her kneecap, she’s extremely seductive…
“Shuuya-sama…” Kisara mutters with a pa.s.sionate voice.
Power dwells at the depths of her blue eyes which are fixed on me. Yep, it’s the face one pulls when they’ve obtained a new religion…her cheeks are burning even more than earlier.
“What’s up?”
“In the name of Damo’Anun’s skulls…I pledge my eternal allegiance to you right here and now, Shuuya-sama. Please, allow me, one of the Four Heavenly Witches…to always stay by your side.”
W-Wut!?
Higlia’s scream reverberates in my ears.